Internet solutions for small and medium enterprises

The Internet is already used by more than 80% of enterprises for company presentations and shops, mainly for business-to-consumer applications. However, studies reveal that in particular small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Europe are tagging dangerously behind in business-to-business applications: only 12% of European SMEs have concepts for e-business, while 40% of European SMEs have no plans at all. Among the most important B2B applications are trading platforms and specific market places, logistics and fulfilment, as welt as payment services. For SMEs, today's communication environment is both vitally important and increasingly difficult to handle. SMEs represent more than 70% of employees in Europe and are becoming one of the most relevant target groups in today's telecommunications business. In the telecommunications market, full service providers and competitive access providers are moving into the application service business. Also, a number of solutions for small and medium enterprises are emerging from specialised companies. This paper gives an overview of the situation of small and medium enterprises in the telecommunications business and provides a summary of solutions and services. Among the managed telecommunications and applications environment offered by access providers are broadband access, telephony and data services, web hosting including office applications, contact centre, unified messaging and integration of mobile employees to the corporate database via cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).